Backup

We are having few issues with backups, we have sql 2005 with IBM X366 cluster and Quad zeon 3.0 ghz processor WITH 16 GB ram. Also we have san discs attached to the server. ALL of sudden, out of blue our backups are failing very frequently. Also we have SQL server 2005, no sp.

Our initial backup was on local san discs and that failed quiet frequently with below mentioned error messages. There are no san or discs errors or any errors reported in sql server logs or windows event viewer. even checked for cluster and san logs and no errors are reported. we have done testing on san and cluster side and as such nothing show that there are any issues on cluster or san side. we have any we have even traced for network, but couldn't find any errors. Many time it works as well, so really can't figure out why its failing with this error message.

Then we tried to backup on our backup server and even on backup server, it failed some time with below mentioned error message. I know this error shows "server storage issues" however this is not at all relevant either because this database size is 163 gb and we have more than 700gb of free space on this server all the time. Not sure if this refer to sql server buffer memory or what....no idea??

If this is failing on day to day basis then you have to monitor the event using profiler & performance monitor for system resource usage. If intermittent then ensure there are no other jobs clashing at the same time.

Are there any recent changes to the infrastructure or SQL server?
Any changes to the database recovery models?
Any changes to the hardware or any firmware update?
Check permissions for SQL server services too.

Satya SKJ
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Writer, Contributing Editor & Moderatorhttp://www.SQL-Server-Performance.Com
This posting is provided AS IS with no rights for the sake of knowledge sharing. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.

Yes its failing on day to day basis and eventviewer and trace doesn't come up with any thing conclusive. We had symantec AV on sytem and we have uninstalled this and since then SQL server hasn't restarted, so I beleive its because of AV that SQL server was restarting (Can be settings of AV). However we are still getting errors on backups as specified above. I am checking for "VAS" issue specified above and should be able to update you all by today.

In the meantime, why are we having errors on network name no longer available. Can this be because of SAN. This local drivce where we are backing up database is just used for this single database. We have tried to backup this on different local drive as well and still get this same error??? any idea why??

Most of the times "The specified network name is no longer " is connectivity related and I believe you need to open a ticket with SAN provider and MS to get more tech support becasue you don't see any errors in cluster log too...
Genereally, if sql server loose the connectivity to the cofigured shared drives you should see an entry in cluster log.

VAS issue can resolved by restarting the sql services... and in 2000 I use -g switch to increase the memory and I don't know at this time -g switch works with 2005 because I have not used it...

MohammedU.
Moderator
SQL-Server-Performance.com

All postings are provided â€œAS ISâ€ with no warranties for accuracy.

Just another thought is SQL is upto latest service pack levels?
Now I see on your first post it has no Service pack, then you have to test and apply latest service in order to fix the bugs or issues since the RTM release.

Satya SKJ
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Writer, Contributing Editor & Moderatorhttp://www.SQL-Server-Performance.Com
This posting is provided AS IS with no rights for the sake of knowledge sharing. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.

what should be the backup/ restore throughput?? can there be anything that we can do in interim till we upgrade to sp1, we might have to spend some time in testing this from our application point of view.

It all depends on your HW and configuration...<br />It can as low as 5 and as high as in hunders...<br /><br />If it is production, try to call MS PSS and what they come up <img src='/community/emoticons/emotion-1.gif' alt='' /><br /><br />MohammedU.<br />Moderator<br />SQL-Server-Performance.com<br /><br />All postings are provided â€œAS ISâ€ with no warranties for accuracy.<br />

The best option is for you to go through the README.HTML for service pack 1 & 2 in this case, also it will be good option to refer to CSS and by default their answer will be to upgrade to latest patches.

Satya SKJ
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Writer, Contributing Editor & Moderatorhttp://www.SQL-Server-Performance.Com
This posting is provided AS IS with no rights for the sake of knowledge sharing. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.

.. if in doubt the best option is to test them on your dev. environment with the application too to ensure the deprecated features are not affecting the application availability.

Satya SKJ
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Writer, Contributing Editor & Moderatorhttp://www.SQL-Server-Performance.Com
This posting is provided AS IS with no rights for the sake of knowledge sharing. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.